Sun and Moon
by Rogercat
Summary: Yuë, the second son of Maedhros is drawn into a mystery about his own meaning in life and possible love life
1. Chapter 1

**The second son**

Author's note: This is set in the same AU as my Warg Rider series and An Open Door, just waaaay after the events in those stories.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Year 380 of the Fourth Age. In general, it was a normal sunny day in summer for the Elves of Valinor. In Formenos people tried to keep on with their everyday life as there was a chance of possible rain coming later in the evening.

"Rûsa? Yuë? Where are you two?" Maedhros called for her two sons while getting help of her husband Rog and their youngest daughter Lówen to look for them. This was a rare day when her whole family would be together for a while, so where in the world were her two boys?

"Maeglin would have mentioned if Rûsa was still in their house, and Snowflake is at our house, so he clearly is not out riding at the moment," Rog commented as he came running to the agreed meeting place at the central fountain in Formenos.

"Cúwen saw no sight of them at the painting hall, and I saw neither at the walls either."

And Fëanor and Nerdanel were away to visit Mahtan in Tirion, so their two grandsons by Maedhros would not be at their home. Muttering to herself in growing anger, the only female Fëanorian tried to think of where her currently missing sons could be.

"Oh, of course! The dance hall!"

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Inside the dancehall, one blue-dressed dancer were moving slowly across the floor. His swift, elegant movements seemed to be almost be floating, into something that akin to a big and elegant bird. Like a swan about to fly out of the water. The likeness to a real swan was made even greater by the simple fact that the male dancer was an albino, with the left half of his long hair caught in small braids braided together to form one long single end and the right half hanging loose.

"Rare to see you without collapsing in the middle of a coughing fit."

Yuë stopped dancing, and his green eyes fell over some of the younger dance students that stood in the door. Oh great, one of those comments about his haleth again. Yuë mentally groaned as he reached for a slate and a piece of white clack, using it to write down:

 _My brother and I often spar to train up my speed to use during dancing. If done carefully, I can manage a longer training period without getting interrupted by a coughing attack._

They gave him a look of serious disbelief, which got on his nerves. Yuë knew that he was somewhat frail in health due to the dangerous circumstances at his premature birth, but he was no fragile porcelain vase that risked being destroyed at a more rough treatment!

"As if you even would be able to last more than a minute against that brother of yours, he is well-known for his skills on the training field despite spending most of his time painting…"

"And I prefer to not have my baby brother insulted about his dance skills from those who are far younger than himself."

That was the only warning given ahead before Rûsa gave the three dance students a punishment Nerdanel had not only used on her children when misbehaving but even Fëanor himself when he was rude to Fingolfin: a slap in the back of the head with a hand.

"Well, Yuë, if you are finished, our parents would want you to come home so we can eat," Rûsa smiled, since Yuë were wiping sweat from his face with a towel. The younger brother nodded to the elder, silently requesting some time for a quick shower and changing to his everyday clothes.

On the way home, Rûsa asked if there had been any comments that could be a sign of hidden bullying against his little brother. By hearing their accent in how they pronounced certain words, he had realized that the dance students were not born or raised in Formenos. Rather, they had to be exchange students from a dancing school in Tirion.

 _Thankfully not. But yes, people outside Formenos should be used to me doing normal things instead of hiding away in the house..._

"If you are not too tired from the dance training, would you like a quick sparring?"

Yuë nodded eagerly, seeing a chance to do something they rarely could do because of various reasons. Each brother taking a starting position, Rûsa nodded to Yuë as a silent signal that he was free to move first. Which he did, with a speed no one would expect to see from him. In fact, even if Rûsa moved back his head, he was hit by a kick to the left side as Yuë tried a new angle in his spinning movements. While it did not get much effect against the muscular chest of his older half-brother thanks to the noticeable height difference between them, it still make him fall back a step.

"Good kick there, Yuë! A movement further upwards and you would have gotten a straight-on kick on my jaw!"

Rûsa's words made his albino half-brother smile faintly, given how rare it was for him to actually get in a good hit on the older brother. Eighty years his senior, Rûsa was far taller with his two meters in height and also more muscular from an active outdoor life. Even so, Yuë hoped that he would be able to get in a new hit.

" _BOYS! Get over here right away, both of you!_ "

The sudden yell in anger from their mother Maedhros from the house made both of them lose balance; Rûsa landed in a rather comical way on his back and ended up tripping Yuë, who narrowly avoided getting his nose broken by the ground thanks to Rûsa quickly putting a large hand on his chest. However, the sudden touch in his chest, which was rather forceful, caused a sharp pain for Yuë and he collapsed down to the ground in a loud coughing fit.

"Yuë!" Maedhros gasped in horror as she arrived just in time to see her younger son fall down. Rûsa tried to explain what they had been doing, even if he ended stuttering over the words as he picked up his younger brother in his arms.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Thankfully, it turned out to not be serious, but Yuë would have a hand-shaped bruise on his chest for a couple of days and he would need to stay in bed for the rest of the day.

 _So much for the plans of training alongside my brother when we had a chance…_ Yuë thought in a disappointed feeling where he laid in bed, his back against the window. While he still lived at home with his parents, the items shown in the chamber were those of a adult _ner_ whose great interests laid in dance and writing. Even if Yuë was mute from birth, he still tried to find ways to communicate with other Elves in order to avoid misunderstandings because he could not talk in a traditional manner. As a result, he was skilled in many styles of writing along with dancing. While his sickly health sometimes caused trouble in the middle of a performance, Yuë had won several prizes for his dancing and writing of small plays, which for him was important. Not the prizes themselves, but to be recognized for his own abilities rather than just as a grandson of Fëanor or as the second-born son of his mother Maedhros. While it also sometimes were annoying to have a famous former Lord of Gondolin as father, Yuë knew that Rog could not help that he had gotten the reputation as a hero from Gondolin after his death.

"Heeeello! Where is my favorite albino friend?" someone on the outside suddenly was heard in a loud voice. Mentally groaning as he was in no mood to meet up with the elf closest to be called his best friend, Yuë rolled over to his other side and walked over to the window, tossing away one of the minor fabric balls he used to move his hands right in different dance movements. A surprised scream was heard as the new ball hit the target.

"Hello there, Adamar. What news do you bring along?" Maedhros greeted through a open window, seeing how the young son of Beleg was ducking for the balls thrown from her younger son's window on the other side of the house.

"Greetings, lady Maedhros! I come with news that… there is gonna be a kind of dance contest among the Avari clans along with a Dwarven fashion show in a month's time! Ow!" the young blond elf answered, before finally getting a second ball in the head. At hearing why Adamar had came, Yuë looked out through the window, a thinner blanket thrown over his shoulders to keep warm or his family would worry.

"And yes, it was partly for you that I arrived here with those news, Yuë. I know how much you like to dance. Besides, I also heard that princess Saira would be there as a guest with her parents."

There was a strong blush on Yuë's cheeks at the mention of Saira. Only his family knew about his crush on her, and it had happened more than once that Rûsa had expressed worry that people would blame his marriage to Maeglin if it became known to the public. Even now, with nearly 270 years of being married to each others, it was not unheard that people would throw rude comments about their kinship as a reason to why they should not have been allowed to marry in the first place.

 _Saira and her parent will really be there?_ Yuë asked by the use of Ósanwë, not wanting to take longer time by writing down the question.

"Yes, silly moon elf. Now come down for a proper greeting instead," Adamar called, using the special nickname he had given Yuë back when they were much younger.

Being shy and withdrawn as he was, Yuë had picked up a habit of moving almost like a shadow, which showed itself as he hurried down to the meeting room in the house where Adamar awaited. But him being mute did not stop Adamar from telling a lot of what had happened lately in the woods of Valinor where Thingol and Melian had set up their new home, along with many of their former subjects from the First Age.

"...and Daeron was tossed out from the tavern again, he is far from being as popular as he once was back in Doriath during the First Age, _nanaeth_ says it is because people have grown very tired of that he still have not gotten over Luthien and that he seems to have trouble coming up with a new theme in his songs…"

Yuë only nodded to what Adamar said. Daeron's trouble with letting go of his millennia-old crush on Lúthien was infamous in pretty much all of Valinor and he was far from the famed minstrel he once had been. Rumours even said that Daeron had started to be overshadowed by much younger Elves who trained to become minstrels, simply because they varied their songs and themes more than focusing on a single target.

 _He really needs to get over Lúthien, yes._

"Hm-hm, yes, I also think half of his current problems are sexual frustration over being dumped by the girl he liked and he holds her as an ideal toward other young ladies who may try and make him see them as possible life partners. So at least half of his problems would be lessened if he got laid," Rûsa agreed at hearing what his half-brother said mentally. Both the youngsters blushed, knowing that Rûsa tended to be rather blunt about sexual matters because he was married.

"Given that he was foolish enough to be the reason of my death and spent time in the Halls too, yes! As if I had anything with the quest for the Silmaril, the blame for messing up with Lúthien lays on Celegorm and Curufin! He is lucky to escape with _only_ a life-long banishment from Formenos or risk bodily harm at being seen around here," Maedhros commented, arriving with a tray of bread buns, as they could not reveal the secret of Rûsa being the former Warg Rider in front of Adamar. Not even her three younger children had been allowed to know that secret, only that Rûsa had spent his first life as a slave in Angband before he had been reborn as her oldest son.

"Some people can indeed become fools in love…"

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Adamar stayed for dinner, before going back to the inn where he had rented a room for some days. Giving their parents some free time together, the four siblings took care of washing the dishes.

"So Túrëo seems afraid of taking it a step further? Well, given what kind of mother he had, I am not surprised that he and his two brothers may still fall into the habit of not daring to stand up for themselves at times," Rûsa said, handing over a clean plate to Lówen to dry. Beside him, Cúwen signed deeply before looking up at her older brother under her mass of light-orange curls.

"I am not holding that against him, I am just worried that his mother may have caused a too deeply-rooted damage in him to the point that he may never be able to bring himself to become more than very close friends despite our mutual feelings, which is extra painful in that his younger brothers Vórimo and Almo have both married already and started their own families…"

While neither of the other three siblings said anything, they could guess why she was sad. Despite the unpleasant start caused by his parents' actions of revenge against Maedhros for pretty selfish reasons linking back to her youth in the Years of the Trees, Túrëo had become a close friend to Maedhros and her family over the years.

 _Perhaps he needs a little extra help? A small push in the back to get free from that final chain from his past?_ Yuë wondered as he polished the last dinner knife with a piece of cloth and laid it among the others on a bigger piece of cloth where he then would place them neatly in the right place.

"Perhaps, but sometimes it is needed for them to make that step alone."

Both Cúwen and Lówen could be pretty blunt, so neither of their two brothers questioned it. Maeglin, who had helped to clean up the table, looked into the kitchen.

"If you are finished here, Rûsa, then l would be pleased to get some attention from you later," she said with a faint touch on a small ring in her left ear that did not go unnoticed by him. Since his sisters were focusing on what they had in their hands, only Yuë spotted the faint smile around the corners of Rûsa's mouth, causing him to blush as he realized that it was some secret code between a married couple. Lucky, in that moment, Rog called them to the living room for some quick family talk before the children of the house left for their own homes.

Yuë watched his brother and sisters leave the family home from the window on his chamber. Out of the four, he was the only one still living at home with his parents because his sickly health could cause trouble if something happened and he was alone with no one else to be close by. Besides, with the almost daily training for the dance, he would have very little time to clean a house properly or make food. He was a good cook when it came to simple meals, but tending to the fire for cooking and heating was a big issue when the smoke could cause him to cough. Getting a coughing fit in the middle of starting a fire was not fun.

 _Sometimes I wish that I was stronger…_

Maedhros winced at hearing the mental words of her younger son. She hated how he sometimes seemed to belittle himself for different reasons, especially when people talked about the difference between her sons. Rûsa, the healthy, willful and free-living oldest son who was in a steady marriage while people mostly remembered Yuë for his sickly health and muteness along with him being a albino. He was not often as forwards as his siblings, had only a tiny circle of close friends, and a shy personality often caused him to fall into the background.

"Sweetheart…" she started, placing a hand on his shoulder in a silent attempt to comfort him, which Yuë understood. If anyone of the family, it was Maedhros who knew best how it was to live with a frail health. She may have been a warrior in Middle-Earth, but to a terrible price of her own body being ruined by Angband and from the difficult birth of Rûsa, which nearly had killed her not just from birth complications but the torture she had suffered during the pregnancy as well. She could still recall how she sometimes could not even leave her bed at especially bad days.

 _Thank you, mother._

The comfort from his parents and siblings helped a lot when he felt down. Even if his life was far from easy because of different things, he could trust his family and close friends to stay at his side.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

As usual, Yuë was a very deep sleeper and did not wake up until that the sun was high in the sky. With a silent groan, he rolled over in bed towards the edge, his landing on the floor softened by his thick nest of blankets. As he sat up, he barely noticed how messy his white hair had become in sleep. Even washing his face with the lukewarm water in the bowl seemed to do little to properly waking Yuë up for the day. Thankfully his room was on the first floor, so there was no worry about him possibly losing balance in the stairs on the way down to the kitchen.

"Good forenoon, son. Your mother is training with her soldiers, your sisters have already left for their own works and I have a request to work out in the forge, but your brother is willing to make a new drawing of you while you trains on your dance today inside the dance hall." Rog greeted along with the reveal of a simple breakfast for his still half-asleep son.

 _Morning, father._

Yuë waved faintly on a hand in thanks, before taking a huge slip of his tea. He tended to need several cups of tea before waking up properly. Out of the whole family, he was a true sleepyhead who rarely could get up at dawn unless he had a very good reason for it. Quickly eating his breakfast, Yuë made himself ready for the dance training he did every day.

Despite having a sickly health and it was not common for him to suddenly collapse in the middle of a dance step because of a coughing fit, Yuë was a skilled dancer. He preferred dances with soft, gentle movements that reminded of water. Right now, with using a long silk scarf to make it flow around his body, he proved himself to be enough of a skill to be courted as a dance master if he would try for a licence to start teaching in dancing classes.

"You are graceful in a manner I would never be able to do," Rûsa commented as he quickly drew up the basic of the position he wanted to paint his half-brother in. He planned to paint Yuë surrounded by swans just taken flight from the water, a fitting motief given that Yuë was a albino.

 _People may claim that I am the weaker one, but we are not alike our maternal grandfather and great-uncle Fingolfin in terms of relationship._

Rûsa nodded in agreement, they both hated it when people tended to expect their close sibling-relationship to only be a mask, that they one day would mirror Fëanor and Fingolfin during the heat of the events before the banishment to Formenos for twelve Years of the Trees.

"We have different skills, and we are _NOT_ copies of our grandfather and great-uncle. When will people get that into their thick heads?" Rûsa muttered for himself while starting to add the basic ground colour of the background in the painting. Yuë did not respond, as he currently was warming up with some simple dance movements. Then, picking up a long silk scarf, he began to dance. It was a dance known as the "Water dance" because of the soft, slow movements and the use of a blue silk scarf to mime the movements of water. Even as he moved around, Rûsa could still get a very good image of his younger brother in a moment of stillness.

"Hello there!" Adamar called as he arrived, carrying a small basket with some simple snacks inside. He had gotten a small shock the first time he had watched Yuë being able to eat roughly half the amount of food which Rûsa could eat. Granted, the older brother was known as a big eater, but sometimes the younger one could surprise as well. Or perhaps it was no wonder, seeing that Yuë was being active in a different manner thanks to the dance training.

"Nice of you to bring something small to eat, Adamar. How are things going for yourself?" Rûsa asked as he put down the paintbrush beside him on the bench.

The fair-haired young Elf smiled.

"Much well, thank you. I have finally started to match my famed father in how to use a bow. I know that I will never beat him, but he is a good teacher at least."

Yuë ensured to not let his muscles become stiff just because he took a small break to catch his breath, listening to Adamar as he told a little more of the latest news from Thingol's halls. More than once as per some of his habit, Rûsa gave some pretty blunt comment about whatever it was that Adamar told them about, even Yuë made some silent comments by hand signs and from his facial expressions.

"So… the dance contest is gonna be held in a month, right? Do you know anything more about it?"

"I know that the Wood Clan, Mountain Clan and the Metal Clan will be holding it together, and the Dwarves threw in a offer for showing the different fashion styles of the seven Dwarven Clans over the past Ages."

Yuë could already see that Rûsa mentally was making plans to travel there, for the chance of making drawings of the Dwarven models and their fashion styles. As for himself, he would enjoy a possible chance to meet up with friends from the Avari clans and loved to dance even if he would not win a prize. The was the spiritual meaning of dance which was important, not winning.

 _I would like to go as well, I have not met our paternal cousins for a while. And it is always fun to watch what will happen when the ideas of the Dwarves and Elves crashes._

All three of them laughed at the memories of such events they had seen in the past. Even the trio themselves had been involved into something similar over the years, it was hard to avoid misunderstandings at times despite good-hearted attempts to not mess up and offend others.

"One thing is for sure, it is never boring with a Dwarf around," Rûsa commented with a knowing smile, seeing Celebrimbor and Narvi together in the distance as they seemed to have a rare disagreement about the design of their new front door, with Narvi giving her Elven husband a firm slap on his butt in response for something he had said. The two younger Elves nodded, hoping that it would become a good event with the dance contest.

 _I hope that my health will not cause trouble again...I would prefer to not collapse in the middle of a dance because I have trouble breathing…_

"You know that Calcanis eventually paid with her life for nearly killing you in mother's womb when it became clear that she was behind the poisoning, Yuë. No one expected your birth to be a premature one, not in a such manner. But you _**are**_ a survivor, you managed to live when even the Valar themselves doubted that you would live for less than a few hours."

Yuë did not seem fully convinced about that, going by the look in his green eyes. With a somewhat absent glare, he wrote down a few words in tengwar on a blank parchment Rûsa had yet to use.

"A new song, my friend?" Adamar asked as he looked over Yuë's shoulder. The albino only nodded as he started to write down some lyrics for the song. Rûsa took the chance to paint the basic colours of Yuë's blue training clothes, adding the darker shadows over the light fabric in the drawing. Soon enough Yuë raised back to his feet to dance some more, Adamar following. However, the son of Beleg was not that grateful in terms of dancing despite being a fellow Elf and thus gave Rûsa a reason to try and hide a laughing fit when Yuë easily outshone his best friend during the dance steps.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Two hours later, Yuë had washed off himself in the bathroom. He needed to rest now during the afternoon if he did not want to collapse from fatigue or from overdoing his training.

 _I hate this weak health of mine...but if it is the price of surviving my premature birth, there is nothing I can do about it…_ In fact, Yuë had confessed to his family that he was terrified of dying, even with knowing that his soul would end up in the Halls of Mandos, a fear partly explained in that so many of his family members had not gotten a peaceful death back in the First Age. It had not helped that Yuë had actually come close to death several times during the first months after his premature birth, struggling for survival outside the womb too early and fighting with weak lungs just to breathe.

 _On the other hand, I am pleased over that my brother and I am not too similar to each other, people are fools if they think that I would really want to mirror my elder brother in almost everything just because he is the older brother…_

Yuë was proud over the small trumpf in that he was far better than Rûsa on dancing, as the elder brother tended to have trouble with his long limbs in the more swift dance movements and his tall height could actually be something of a hindrance for the more advanced dance steps. Small victory, perhaps, but still a victory.

With a small smile, Yuë allowed himself to fall down on his back and arms wide as he landed on his bed. Looking up on the roof, he was meeting with a well-painting dark blue night sky with stars and the moon shining on the clouds, another one of Rûsa's work from when Yuë had wished to re-decorate his sleeping chamber after coming of age as a sign of maturity. In fact, the theme colour was actually a mint green colour in a very elegant style which fitted the albino Elf very well. Picking up a book from the bed table while sitting in a cross legged style, he prepared to read for a while since he had eaten a light luncheon in response for his late breakfast and dinner would not be finished yet in a few hours.

"Yuë? I have some newly-brewed mint tea if you want a cup?" his mother called from the other side of the door after a knock. Three careful knocks on his bed table told her that it was alright to enter. Maedhros entered with a small tray where she had placed the tea and some biscuits, smiling at her youngest son. Even if he was an adult now, she still wanted him to know that if there ever was a problem, he could always come to his family for help.

 _Mother, I would like to take part in that dance contest, but I would like someone to come along with me there in case I get ill._

His somewhat frail health was the main reason to why Yuë had not moved out to a house of his own in Formenos, he feared to be unable to get help if something serious happened and he was alone at home.

"Your brother have gotten a request to paint the Seven Dwarf-Fathers' wives in their various Clan cultural clothes, and Maeglin have planned to met up with her family there as well, so there is already just to come along."

That made Yuë smile, since his brother and law-sister would know what to do if things got messy for him. Besides, perhaps he finally would gain enough courage to reveal his feelings for Saira after so many years of silence about how he felt for her, even if she may end up rejecting him for someone else.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Author's note: Adamar is a OC character borrowed with permission from an Roleplay-page on Facebook, where he is the son of Beleg Cúthalion and Nellas of Doriath. Maedhros is referred as the only female Fëanorian because she is the only daughter of Fëanor's seven children, her own four children are not viewed as direct Fëanorians because they are the grandchildren of Fëanor and Nerdanel


	2. Chapter 2

**Different as night and day**

As it had been part of his life since birth, Yuë knew that there was little he could do on days when his breathing issues simply were too much. Today was one such day, when dance training, writing or even leaving his bed for longer times was out of question.

 _Great, and here I wanted to plan for the dance contest…perhaps even do some practice..._

The bruise from yesterday was still visible on his chest, now having turned a purple colour which seemed even worse against the white skin because of his albinism, but Yuë knew that it would soon heal, it just needed some time.

Looking around in his room as he slowly turned around in bed, Yuë saw on the other prizes he had worn for his dancing. A few others for his writing as well, having creative ideas for theater plays which was popular among those who found themselves lucky to be given the chance to play what he had written. Not any big prizes, but they were a proof of his actual talents, not for being given pity for his sickly health or someone trying to win his favor simply because he was the second son to his mother Maedhros, who was second-in-line to the Noldorin Kingship after his grandfather Fëanor.

 _As if being fifth-in-line to the throne ever have been useful for me. It is not like I even want to become High King…_

Yuë shuddered at the mere idea of having to stand in front of a large crowd and trying to give some kind of speech. No, even by using Ósanwë because he was physically mute, it would not go well. He knew that his withdrawn personality would not be accepted, especially as the position of High King was both a social and political one, where the ruler in question needed to be seen by those he ruled over. And yet somehow the irony was that despite the Kinslayings, by abdicating in favor of her uncle Fingolfin, Maedhros had still ended up in a role of leadership in the wars against Morgoth and by outliving so many relatives to the end of the War of Wrath, had proven herself to somehow be an uncrowned High Queen for those who followed the House of Fëanor well until the very end.

No, it was perfectly fine for Yuë that his sister Cúwen was been him and Rûsa in the order of succession, with their younger sister Lówen following him. His great-grandfather had needed to change the order of his succession when so many of his grandchildren had ended up with daughters as offspring, and after the Exile in Middle-earth, the female members of the Noldorin royal family was not going to accept that they could only inherit the throne after their male relatives. And Fëanor himself had made an early protest against the rules so long ago, by keeping Maedhros as his heiress even after the birth of his first son Maglor.

 _Politics are so boring… how can the courtiers think that everyone in the family would want to be part of the power intrigues at the royal court in Tirion…?_

As if his many uncles even had time for playing that kind of games meant for gaining small amount of power. which could be easily lost again. Formenos was not going to run itself, and the soldiers needed to be kept in shape if their old battle skills ever became needed.

"Yuë? I was asked to sweep clean the roof tiles here outside the window to your chamber, so you know what I am doing out here," Rûsa called, before peeking in through the window, looking as if he just had been fighting with some of the birds who had their old nests on the roof, especially with a couple of loose feathers and dust in his dark red hair caught up in his normal braid over one shoulder. Yuë merely waved lazy in dismissing with one hand from the bed, more or less telling his brother to not bother about him and keep working with the task.

As Rûsa swept the roof tiles while carefully balancing so he would not slip over the edge, Yuë watched his older brother in the corner of his eye. He had never really been jealous of Rûsa for being their mother's heir, if one did not count the times of bitter resentment when he recalled the story of how he had ended up with his sickly health in the first place.

 _I hope that deranged woman really suffers in the punishment of having to live a mortal life over and over again…!_

It felt good to have someone to blame in times when he felt bitter about not being healthy, since Yuë knew the whole story and how it had started. He did not blame his mother, since she could not have known how a rejected suitor from her youth would be so consumed by the humiliation he had faced instead of getting his offer of marriage accepted and a deep desire for revenge, by trying to ruin Maedhros even more after her rebirth and destroy any chances she had for reminding people that she had not been born as a Kinslayer, with blood on her hands and murder on her mind already from the very moment she drew her first breath.

"Whoa!"

Rûsa had almost slipped on a roof tile, which was hard to avoid given that he was half a meter taller and, of course, weighting a lot more than Yuë thanks to his muscle mass, but managed to avoid any danger of falling down.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Inside the house, down in the kitchen:

Rog saw that Maedhros was thinking seriously about something as they were washing the dishes together after breakfast, he had learned to read her mood by her eyes over the long time as they had been married, and personally he thought that he could guess what was on her mind.

"You are thinking about our dear moon child again?" he asked, referring to the family nickname Yuë had gotten as an infant because he had both been conceived and born at a night with a full moon.

"Yes, I worries for how it will go for him in the matters of the heart and a possible marriage in the future…"

It was not that Maedhros had anything against the young lady who had caught the heart of her younger son, but at the same time, she was not sure whether it should be encouraged or not.

"The problems Rûsa and Maeglin faced from prejudice-minded people when words came out that the High King had allowed their marriage to happen? That it was not a marriage meant to happen based on that they shared one common great-grandfather in the High King?"

Another nod, which showed some of her unspoken worry.

"Unlike Aredhel, Finrod is remembered as a hero, the golden prince of his family. Maeglin was not the most sought-after princess in their generation when it came to marriage, but Saira is a child of Valinor, free from the trauma so many of us suffered by being born in this Fourth Age. If both my sons were to marry a second-cousin as a wife, people will view it as an attempt from my family to gain more power and preventing others from marrying into the royal family, for all of that uncle Finarfin's line is behind my own family and uncle Fingolfin's descendants in the succession to the throne…"

Even with Finwë having changed the rules about the succession early in the first century of the Fourth Age because of more female descendants among his great-grandchildren, a great contrast to the thirteen grandsons and three granddaughters fathered by his three sons, Maedhros knew that not all among the Noldor had accepted the change. Both her sons and daughters were indirectly suffering from distrust from her past as a Kinslayer, and for her stubborn refusal to reveal who Rûsa's father truly was. But she did not want to drag Taurion into the mess of royal polities among those who was not his own people, not when he had enough with being the chieftain of the Wood clan among the nomadic Avarin clans.

"All those rumours speaking of that I am secretly ashamed of Yuë… that we are hiding him away from the public despite that he is seen sometimes in dance tournaments and taking part of writing contests…"

She was proud of the skills her younger son had been blessed with, but very few knew of how withdrawn Yuë truly was in personality and that he actually preferred to fall into the shadow of his more socially active sisters and he could almost only come alive in his dancing outside the people he felt comfortable around. In fact, Yuë could almost rival Rûsa when it came to avoiding the public duties of a prince so high up in the succession, but part of the escape came from that by living in Formenos and refusing to move from there, they were so far away from the royal court in Tirion that it simply was impossible for her sons to be involved with the court.

"Perhaps we should invite Saira to come and visit us after this dance contest? Having to spend time with her here as a guest in our home, where he would be rude by hiding away in his chambers, may help Yuë break out from his shell and actually bring himself to confess about his feelings for her."

Rog did not say that they should encourage Yuë to hope for something impossible, but Maedhros understood the unspoken words. At the very least, their son should have a chance for love.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Back upstairs Yuë had almost fallen asleep again because there was not much else for him to do on a day like this when his breathing issues was too hard to ignore, when his attention was called again, though for a rather different reason than what he first thought:

"Yuë, can you check whether this is good?"

Rûsa tossed something though the window, and the younger Elf caught the piece of parchment in one hand. Almost right away, his scholarly side cringed at what he saw written down.

 _You and your endless struggle to try and write the correct grammar, brother…_

It was actually a love poem for Maeglin, pretty sweet in fact, but as always when it came to writing down things, Rûsa's handwriting and grammar was an honest mess. Yuë was used to how hopeless his brother was at trying to do a neat handwriting, but he knew that others outside the House of Fëanor actually needed a wordlist, almost a specially written lexion even, in order to be able to decode whatever it was that Rûsa had tried to write.

"It is not the grammar I meant for you to check—is the poem good or not?" Rûsa muttered with slightly reddened cheeks. "I wanted to surprise Maeglin this evening with a nice dinner when she comes home from the forge and why not add in a nice poem as well?" He knew very well that Yuë was far superior to him when it came to writing and reading, not that Rûsa himself really cared about it because as long as it was somewhat legible, his family would figure out the written meaning soon enough. That difference had never been a problem before between them as brothers.

 _It looks good, so you do not need to change anything in what you already have written down on the parchment. And I just can not understand why some people still finds it so shocking that you chose to be a house-husband by your own will,_ Yuë could not help but comment in a friendly teasing. Rûsa seemed to have expected such response, given how he smirked in return:

"Well, where else should I spend my free time to paint my drawings, while my wife is the breadwinner by being a smith and I just earn some extra income by selling my paintings? Our dear grandmother's studio for creating her statues? Where all the stone dust from the marble and other decoration stones only would get stuck to the wet paint? Or grandfather's forge, where it would be a risk of that a small spark could set the whole painting on fire in a matter of moments?"

Yuë had to laugh at the mental images his brother made him think off. Rûsa was right, it was for the best that he would create his drawings and paintings in the home where he and Maeglin lived as a married couple, where no one risked to make a mess of the hard work he laid down on each piece of art and causing him to have wasted all the time he needed to paint.

"That reminds me. Here is something for you, little brother."

Again Rûsa tossed over something to Yuë who caught it. The small item turned out to be a miniature drawing of Saira, because Rûsa had never seen any problem with the idea of a marriage between his brother and the daughter of Finrod. Since Yuë already had been secretly in love with Saira for so many years but not dared to take the next step, Rûsa honestly thought that it was high time to simply push things into happening, and the dance contest where Saira would be a guest would be a good starting point in his view on things.

"I will be home at my house if you need my help in something."

 _Please tell Adamar that I will try and come out in the garden tomorrow for some planning about the dance contest._

Waving with one hand in farewell, Rûsa easy climbed down the ladder he had used to get up on the roof and Yuë was left alone to daydream as he looked on the miniature of Saira.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Author's note:

In my stories Orodreth is the second son of Finarfin, making the siblings five in number and, together with the four cousins from Fingolfin and seven cousins from Fëanor, they are the sixteen grandchildren to Finwë by his sons

The Noldorin royal family have learnt a few lessons from the chaos in the First Age when it came to who that will be the first to inherit the kingship and that people started to question why none of the female family members was made a ruler with so many brothers and cousins dead in battle. Basically I headcanon that there was a huge debate about whatever Turgon or Gil-galad should be the next High King after Fingon, as Turgon was the last living offspring of Fingolfin and Gil-galad was still a child. Add in that Orodreth was the only one with a child of his own among the five children of Finarfin and that with Maedhros, Maglor and Galadriel left as the senior family members remaining at the War of Wrath, they had run out a lot of possible High Kings. (Not sure if Elrond and Elros would have a big claim due to being the great-grandsons of Turgon, which would make them removed very down the line of succession had more their Noldor relatives still been alive)

In case you are confused what Yuë meant about what caused his sickly health, please read the Warg Rider part 2: Sins of the Past, and part 3; Tears of Blood. There is the mentioned details of a rejected suitor of Maedhros from the Years of the Trees, and how he drags his own family into a spiral of self-destruction because he resents not managing to marry into the royal family since Maedhros is the oldest child and heiress to Fëanor, while his wife resents that she was his second choice in marriage and hates Maedhros for the obsession her rejection caused in the husband

Rûsa is meant to suffer from dyslexia, which explains his struggles to read and write properly


	3. Chapter 3

_**Travel to the dance contest**_

In a villa outside Tirion;

Saira focused greatly on her lessons in Khuzdul with a Dwarven teacher to ensure that she learnt the correct terms and pronunciation. Given that her father Finrod had been helped by the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains to build Nargothrond, and remaining a trusted ally with them, it was only natural that his daughter followed in his footsteps.

"Well done, princess. You will be able to speak our language as if you had been born a Dam now."

"Thank you for all your hard work in teaching me, Mistress Ingvild," Saira thanked her teacher. The Dwarrowdam was a well-known scholar from the beginning of the Second Age, and had been personally chosen by Finrod as a tutor to his daughter in the hope of that Saira might feel more comfortable around a fellow female.

"Princess, there is a package for you from the mail carriage!" a housemaid called, entering the school room with a wooden box in her arms.

"Oho, a new gift from one of your suitors?" Ingvild joked, knowing that her Elven student was highly sought after as a possible bride, not only for her beauty and lineage, but also for her personal charms.

"I have already needed to reject two more suitors this year alone! Surely it is not fair for other maids of good family to see possible suitors be drawn to me like flies to honey?" Saira protested. It was not that she was uninterested in marriage and future motherhood, but a lot of her former suitors was rejected for not being her type, simple as that.

Instead, she focused on opening the wooden box. The design seemed familiar from earlier, so she had a good guess on its hidden contents.

"Oh!"

A handwritten book of poems, three bags of her favorite teas among the Dwarven-made products and what seemed to be a rose made from purple glass.

" _That fellow_ again, I see. He is the only one who bothers to stand out though Dwarven-crafted gifts beside his own handmade ones."

Amarië had arrived while her daughter had been focused on the new gifts. This mysterious suitor had sent anonymous gifts to Saira twice each passing season for nearly one century and a half, but the gifts alone was no clue to his real identity. One possibility was that he simply was awfully shy, and feared to be seen in public with the gifts.

"I will prepare my last things for the journey tomorrow, dearest ammë. This dance contest is not something I intend to miss!"

The whole family would travel, Saira and her parents along with some trusted servants. It was a great honor to see more of the Dwarven culture.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

As it would take them about two weeks to travel in order to reach where the dance contest would be held, Yuë suggested for Rûsa and Maeglin where they might be staying over at friends to the family for a night so they could rest in a proper bed with a roof over the head at least once on the journey.

"According to the map… yes, that is a good idea with those people."

Given how hopeless it was for Rûsa to even attempt writing a formal letter with his dyslexia, it fell on Maeglin to write a letter to the people they planned to stay with.

After two days, they had packed all they needed for the travel alongside Yuë's competition suits in a separate bag and Rûsa had packed down some of his items needed for making drawings.

"Celebrimbor and Narvi have already left, but I think we will meet them at the dancing contest as it is near the gate to the Dwarven realms."

Somehow, Aulë had gotten permission from the All-Father that the Halls of the Forefathers would have a gate to Valinor, and if any of the Dwarves wanted a second life, they were welcome to build a city around that gate. No one had been surprised that Narvi had been one of the first to gain a new body, for she truly desired to meet up with her Elven husband again. That the Dwarves actually could choose which age the new body would be in, and no having to worry about ageing, had been a huge bonus when the Dwarrowdam had chosen to reappear in her prime.

 _I think that ammë was much pleased to meet old friends from the First Age again thanks to that gate, and it is always fun to see how the clothing styles changed over the generations,_ Yuë commented with a smile. He had truly proven himself a relative of Maedhros and Celebrimbor by being interested in the Dwarven race, especially the vast amount of fashion among the Seven Dwarven clans, which had often proven some form of inspiration for his own clothing.

"It was very amusing to see the shocked faces at the royal court in Tirion the first time Celebrimbor presented Narvi as his wife!" Maeglin laughed at the memory, she had been present at that time because such a reveal was once-in-a-lifetime event, given that the oldest grandson of Fëanor was the so far only known Elf to have fallen in love with and marrying a Dwarf. A huge difference from the Elven-Mortal romances that normally happened if an Elf fell in love with someone from a different race.

"Yeah, I think a lot of the courtiers got the shock of their lifetime there, since they never left Valinor at the Darkening!" Rûsa agreed, just as their mother came over to where her two sons and daughter-in-law was almost ready for starting their travel.

"Your father and I will come to the dance contest too, but we have some things that needs to be finished before we can leave. Like ensuring that there will not be anything crazy from your grandfather again while we are gone."

Out of habit that had started since her wedding, Maedhros addressed Rog as the father to her sons. It was to ensure that no one with ill intentions found out about Taurion being the biological father of Rûsa, or the secret about her firstborn. Rûsa being born in Angband and brought up into becoming the real identity of the feared Warg Rider in the First Age, had to be kept hidden in order to keep him safe, it was already bad enough with her own actions as a former kinslayer and all that with the cursed Oath.

"Don't let grandfather blow something up again in his lab and I think things will be calm, ammë!"

Maedhros smiled. Sometimes it was not such a big surprise that her boys could act younger than what they were, for while Yuë was 290 years old this year and Rûsa's official age being 370 years since they claimed him to be born in the tenth year of the Fourth Age, the different personalities of the two half-brothers could highlight that they were both mature adults, but in different ways.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

The journey went fine for most of the first days, however, there were two days of rain that affected Yuë. Even with borrowing two extra cloaks to try to keep warm, it did not help much.

 _I hate when it is cold or damp weather like this!_

His wheezing was impossible to hide, and there was a faint tightness in his chest that did not help his breathing either.

"We are nearly at the house owned by Dior and Nimloth, try and hold out until then."

Elrond had done his best to treat Yuë's lung and respiratory problems ever since the younger son of Maedhros had survived his premature birth, but not even he had been able to find a cure for the asthma Yuë suffered from outside giving him the recipe of a potion with equal quantities of ginger and honey to consume it 2-3 times a day. The famed healer recognized the symptoms of asthma from treating mortals in Middle-earth, yet he could not do much else, sadly.

The trio of riders was met by a rather...unexpected scene at the house where they had planned to stay for the night:

" **How many times do I have to tell people that** _ **I do NOT WANT**_ **any gifts that reminds me of my parents!** "

It was a male voice who shouted, followed by the sound of something of fabric that was thrown out in the air and landing on the ground. It turned out to be a growing pile of clothes made out of blue fabric as new pieces of clothing were tossed out from a window on the upper floor, along with what seemed to be tapestries with similar motifs of a dancing She-elf and a mortal who watched her. Anyone who knew the history of Doriath knew who the couple was.

"Ok, who has been idiotic enough to ignore that Dior does not hold his famed parents in a good light anymore?" Maeglin wondered aloud as some servants saw a chance to escape out of the house for a little while and came to take care of their horses.

"A not so brilliant courtier at Thingol's court who thinks that our master must be worshipping the heroic deeds of his parents to show that their love was more important that the relationships between the Elven realms, my lady," a housemaid quickly explained as their horses was taken to the small stable not far from the main house.

Oh, that explained the outburst from the master of this house. It was not that widely known, but Dior Eluchil had changed his view on his parents and their actions ever since the Second Kinslaying that had cost most of his own family their lives. Mainly because, in a sense, he was the one to suffer the consequences of the Quest for the Silmaril which had been started by his maternal grandfather Thingol demanding a nearly impossible bride price for Luthien from Beren, clearly not thinking of how the seven children of Fëanor could take offense of such an idea.

"Lady Nimloth? Are we arriving at a bad time?" Rûsa wondered as they entered the main hall, and a brown-haired She-Elf of mixed Sindar and Silvan origins hurried out from a room to meet her guests.

"No, it is just some idiot pushing Dior's patience about what people think about his parents again. As you know from our earlier meetings, he is not exactly happy with how he had to deal with things after them."

The former second King and Queen consort of Doriath had, a few years after their own rebirth and Dior choosing to be counted among the Elves, somehow managed to come to an agreement with the House of Fëanor; Yes, the whole Kinslaying could have been avoided in one way or another, but Dior had also been awfully young for a King ruling over immortal Elves while also being a married father of three small children and inexperienced with all the small details of not offend possible enemies. Besides, Luthien and Beren carried some of the blame for the whole thing, Celegorm had been ensnared by her inherited Maia powers and she had played with his feelings in the hope of gaining help to save Beren from Sauron, not realizing that Celegorm was not like any of the other rejected suitors in the past and that the Noldor as a whole had very different customs and traditions than the Sindar in Doriath.

"Anyway, Dior will come as soon as he has calmed down, so please enjoy your guest chambers and a nice bath before dinner. This whole summer has been a repeat of this nonsense and he is much displeased about it," Nimloth promised, taking the role of a hostess for her Noldorin guests.

Dior did indeed show up at dinner to share the meal with his wife and guests when he had calmed down from his earlier outburst.

"Oh, you changed into the clothes I made for you this winter!" Nimloth smiled in joy at seeing what he was wearing.

Even when dressing in plain, home-made clothing and his dark brown hair set up in a simple ponytail laying across one shoulder that was slightly too broad for a full-blooded Elf, it was impossible to hide that he was one of the fairest beings known in Valinor thanks to his lineage, but that beauty was marred by that he had demanded to be reborn with the scars from the fatal duel against Celegorm, as a personal reminder of what his actions once had caused and for not wanting people to think of Luthien when seeing him. As such, he had three great scars on the left side of his face, the kind left by long fingernails clawing deeply into the skin. Another scar hidden under his plain tunic, was from the deadly sword cut across his chest.

"Greetings everyone. I hope that the journey went well?"

"Yes, thank you. Uncle Celegorm asked us to tell you that he will be hunting around this area in a few weeks."

Some people might say that Dior's social skills were only mediocre due to being raised in Tol Galen, for it did not have any neighbors living around and that as a royal prince, he should have to socialize more in the south of Valinor where his grandfather had gotten a small realm to rule over and as a visitor to the other royal courts in Valinor, yet he and Nimloth were happy to live a fairly secluded life with few visits in addition to friends or relatives.

"Eluréd is doing well with his studies in becoming a botanist under the teaching of Orodreth and Elurín enjoys working with wood carving," Nimloth revealed when asked about what the now grown sons were doing after moving out.

Besides, after a rocky start due to the past, Dior had surprised everyone by actually befriending Celegorm to the point of almost being his apprentice in hunting and wilderness survival. A lot of people questioned that to be true, given the whole history of what had happened in Nargothrond, but for Celegorm and Dior it was an honest attempt of putting the past behind them

It had started when Celegorm had given an honest explanation to Dior and Nimloth that he had never ordered his servants to get rid of Eluréd and Elurín in the first place, and that his original idea with the young princes was to take them hostage and try to exchange them for the Silmaril since with Dior and Nimloth having three children within four years and that the births had been very close for a She-elf who normally could wait several decades between each pregnancy, the most logical was that Nimloth could be too drained spiritually to try another pregnancy and that it would be very stupid to risk their two sons' lives. In a way that had been correct, because Elwing's birth only three years after their twin sons had not only been very draining for Nimloth spiritually, it had also left damage that would make a new pregnancy dangerous.

"What are you intending to do with all those clothes you threw out earlier, Dior? Because I doubt that all of them can be given away to friends or remade into horse blankets…"

The Half-Elven signed.

"To be honest, we have run out of ideas on what to do with the clothes, since we have already made so many blankets and pillows to give away to charity. Blue only reminds me of _her,_ so neither Nimloth or I wear them. Many of them are actually made in a wrong size for me, as several people think that I inherited the height of my maternal family when I am roughly the same height as a normal Elf."

Nimloth told the three guests that some clothes had been away to the House of Fingolfin since that was the traditional colour of their family in contrast to the red of the House of Fëanor and the white of the House of Finarfin, but that would not go in the long run.

 _Maybe you could gift the clothes to the Dwarven merchants and tailors? If there are several ones in the same colour, pattern and fabric, I do not think it would be too much trouble to redesign them into Dwarven clothing,_ Yuë suggested after spending most of the meal in silence, even if he did use ósanwe to take part in the conversation from time to time. That was a good idea, the two married couples did agree, and also a bit hilarious, especially given that Thingol had gotten a serious phobia about Dwarves thanks to the manner he had died in and would most likely be horrified to learn that his grandson had given all his gifted clothing to the Dwarves for them to use.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

After a pleasant meal in good company, Yuë felt satisfied with the day. He and Dior had bonded early on back when he was still an Elfling, in that they were the sons of famous mothers and fathers, and how that could be a troublesome legacy to live up to.

 _At least Dior and Nimloth have each other for support and strength, even in dark times and bad days. That is one of the things I envy those who are married…_

Taking his ginger-honey medicine so he would be able to sleep peacefully, Yuë then made some light stretching exercises since the riding each day did not allow him to do his daily dance training as normally. Besides, in order to cover as much distance each day, Maeglin, Rûsa and himself had to get up early each morning. Tomorrow, however, he could sleep in as they planned to stay for two nights, with Dior and Nimloth needing some extra help to find all the gifted yet still unused clothes that they still had in their wardrobes and then join the trio to the dance contest to sell the clothes to the Dwarves.

 _I guess that there will come a day when I can no longer send gifts for her. But right now, it is the only way I can show my love for her without risking to be found out. The memories of brother and Maeglin facing a lot of slander and even distrust due to choosing each other in marriage...no, I am not strong enough to stand against that, I may be a son born to one of the famed Lords of Gondolin but at the same time, I am the son of a Fëanorian, tainted with her old crimes from the Kinslayings…_

People would not react well if they found out that the younger son of Maedhros desired to have the daughter of Finrod as his bride. Especially those who did not want the House of Fëanor to gain more power again. Yuë knew that his mother, maternal grandfather and uncles were not proud of what they had done in the past, and had done their best to make amends for the Kinslayings and a lot of other things the Oath had indirectly led to, but sadly there were people who kept viewing the family as untrustworthy, that they secretly awaited a perfect moment or situation to extend their power again.

And it was the younger generation who paid for what their parents once had done, long before several of them even had been born; Celebrimbor had enough problems by being reminded by how Sauron had twisted the Rings of Power. Maglor's daughter Lindë with his wife Rainiel had to keep her own musical talent toned down or she risked to be viewed with distrust due to who her father was. Rûsa was viewed as socially inappropriate for various reasons Yuë had never really understood outside that his brother hated to spend time at the royal court. Cúwen was somehow viewed as too wild to be viewed as proper lady despite that she mostly was a little more outspoken than her brothers and well-known for determination. Lówen enjoyed acting as proper modest lady, but behind her sweet appearance she hid a big dose of irony aimed towards people who disrespected her family.

At least Frëja could escape some of that, thanks to her mother being a Dwarrowdam and enjoying a career as a singer among her maternal race if it became too much for her among the Elves at times. Narvi was a famous name among the Dwarves, not only as one of the co-workers who had built the Doors of Durin in the Second Age, but for other reasons outside her legendary friendship-turned-romance with Celebrimbor.

 _No, I have to stop thinking negatively. I have promised myself that if I manage to land myself in a good place in the ending list during the dance contest, I will confess my feelings to Saira even if she will reject me._

With a final look on the miniature portrait of Saira that he had gotten from Rûsa, Yuë blew out the candle so his guest chamber was only filled with the light from the stars and new moon outside the window.

 _Good night, beloved Saira._

For all of that he kept sending her those anonymous gifts, it still felt reassuring that he could at least give her gifts she liked. Last time he had been in Tirion, for example, she had been wearing a silver hair comb chip which he had gifted her on her begetting day. If that was not encouraging in their own way, then what was?

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Author note:

Yuë clearly takes after his father Rog in terms of hesitate to reveal themselves as the sender of secret gifts to the lady of his heart. For Rog, Maedhros being a princess and third-in-line with Fëanor as the Crown prince during the Years of the Trees, meant that he as a common blacksmith at that time were not very likely to be her suitor despite that Fëanor had most likely broken a lot of plans for his future by marrying Nerdanel. In the case of Yuë, the past of his family and his own reputation among the Noldor is a big obstacle about Saira

Ingvild is an Old Norse feminine name, and seeing that Tolkien used such names for the Dwarves, I thought it fitting that Saira might be taught by a Dwarrowdam.

I like the idea of Orodreth being a botanist with herbalism as his speciality

My personal headcanon is that Dior have mixed feelings about the whole Quest for the Silmaril and his parents after the Second Kinslaying, as Luthien and Beren basically doomed their son though the whole drama of her rejecting Celegorm as a suitor and not giving the Fëanorians the Silmaril after that they returned to life as mortals. Personally, I think Dior would feel bitter and likely try to avoid people from Doriath because he does not want to be reminded of his parents


	4. Chapter 4

_**Meeting of different cultures**_

It felt very nice to be able to have a long sleep-in since they would not travel again until the next day. Yuë always tried to get up early in the mornings if he had a very good reason for it, but it was not the easiest of tasks for him. Today, however, it was not just Rûsa waking him up:

"You need to get up now if you want to avoid risking to miss breakfast with our hosts…that cat is still alive?"

A huge feline, black as a raven wing and showing no signs of age, was sitting on Yuë's stomach area as the younger brother just had woken up from its weight making it difficult for him to breathe.

"Ancalagon, shoo. You are not allowed to do that on our guests outside my annoying son-in-law," Dior ordered to the cat at seeing why Rûsa had not entered the guest room, and even tossed a cat toy so Ancalagon jumped off the bed, chasing after the toy.

 _Are he a Maia like Huan or just one of those creatures who gets a very long lifespan because they have some form of origins in the Woods of Oromë?_ Yuë wondered, sitting up now when there was no huge cat on ten kilos holding him down.

"Well, Anca is a northern breed as seen by his body build and long fur, but since those cats have been found in northern Valinor since the Elves first arrived and your uncle brought Ancalagon to us from the Woods, I can not say for sure what our furball to mousehunter really is."

And Dior had a good point. Both Rûsa and Yuë had visited the Woods of Oromë together with their uncle Celegorm several times over their lives, and where Oromë ruled, animals would hardly be called normal.

 _I will wash quickly and dress before coming._

~X~X~X~X~X~X

After breakfast, the two married couples agreed to help out about the clothes that Dior had wanted to get rid of yesterday.

"No joke about that you are desperate to clean all those out. Really, just how many of them are in a different colour than blue?"

It was not that Maeglin had black and grey as her favorite colours, she simply wore them most often in the forge because on other colours, the soot would be visible pretty quickly.

"Far too few," Nimloth commented dryly, as she began to fold the clothes together so that they could be gathered in smaller piles that were easier to place in a carriage. Just in case, Dior had to test out some of the robes and clothes to make notes about how long they were, likely materials they had been made from and other details that the Dwarven merchants would appreciate to know.

"Seriously, the length of this one...do they intend for you to basically just sit still and be unable to move, while watching others dance or something?"

Rûsa held up a long robe that looked like it had been very complicated to make, and to wear as well since it was cut and sewn in a matter that was aimed to not allow any fast walking or sudden movements. Dior made a displeased face at seeing what it was.

"Oh no, no, no. That awful _**court robe**_ meant for my grandfather's court down in the south is going, no arguments!"

A female variant, meant to be a court dress for Nimloth, was refused as well. Maeglin could recall one time when she and her maternal relatives had been sent to Thingol for a state visit, and personally been grateful for that the Noldorin fashion was less restrained on movements. Those who had once lived in Exile, or been born in Middle-earth during the First Age, tended to favor clothing that did not restrain movement and as simply made as possible. Practical clothing, not something to impress others with as a sign of wealth or social standing, because in war and other times of crisis survival was the most important.

While Rûsa and Maeglin helped Dior and Nimloth to sort through all the refused robes and clothes of blue fabric to bring to the Dwarves to sell, Yuë took the chance to do some dance training. He would have loved to be out in the fruit garden since the sun had returned this morning, but the rain from yesterday had made the ground muddy and he did not want to risk slipping in the mud so he injured himself in some way. In the small breaks between each dance he tested out, he sat down and made a few poems.

"Those runes...it is Cirth, right? But I guess that you are writing it as meant to be read in Khuzdul."

Dior had taken a small break, arriving with a few of the garments to see if Yuë might be able to wear them, and maybe having the garments resewn into something he could wear as a dance attire during the contest.

 _Yes. Despite being mute, I have heard the Stone Children of Aulë speak their language around my family since I was a toddler, so I think that I should be able to speak it if I could use my vocal cords thanks to training on the words mentally and I am able of speaking with them though their sign language as well. Ammë and cousin Celebrimbor insisted on that, since not all the Dwarves are as fluent in Quenya or Sindarin as Narvi or the Dwarven allies Ammë had from Belegost._

Recalling how his own grandfather Thingol nowadays had a deeply rooted phobia of Dwarves thanks to how he had died, Dior said nothing about his mental image of how Thingol possible would react if he ever heard someone in the Fëanorian family speaking the language of the Dwarves.

"Those are among the smaller garments I was gifted, and since the tailors at the court of my grandfather have no idea of which sizes that I actually have on my clothes, we thought that you could try them."

As they tested the garments Dior had brought along, it quickly became clear that Yuë, having a short stature by elven standards, were not tall enough for those. He was of a thin body shape, but still physically fit because he needed to keep himself in shape for his dancing, it simply was not as visible as his brother's muscle mass since Yuë needed to cover his skin from the sun.

 _Might as well give all of the garments away. If I am to have a new dance costume, then I want it to fit properly and not be hasty altered since clothes are part of the impression a dancer gives to those who watches._

~X~X~X~X~X~X

The next morning, the now expanded travel group on five Elves continued the journey. Dior and Nimloth had chosen to ride their own horses instead of using a carriage, so they all shared the burden of having a bag packed with the sorted garments as part of their luggage.

During the journey, Nimloth took the chance to enlighten the three Noldor Elves about how things had once been in Doriath during the First Age, and what differences she found out now in their second life, having time to study how the Noldor had ruled Beleriand:

"Personally, I think that lord Finrod had a better success with Nargothrond in terms of trade and power. With all the brothers and cousins having a realm for themselves or sharing with a sibling, it meant a shared language and origin for all the Noldor realms."

As Maeglin added in on how life had been in Gondolin, all five did agree that it was a pure miracle that Turgon's hidden realm had survived on its own without any contact or trade with the outside world. After all, Maeglin could tell how with time, the people in Gondolin had not been as pleased with the isolation as Turgon might have believed. In fact, she was hardly the only one who longed to leave the Hidden City again despite the dangers from Morgoth, Rog and many others Exiles who knew a life before Gondolin, felt trapped in the valley.

"I think, that had not its Fall happened as it did, my uncle would have faced some form of hidden revolt eventually, where people chose to escape from Gondolin somehow."

She did not mention it, but Rûsa knew that Maeglin had been captured by orcs and brought to Angband while trying to plot a possible escape route where Turgon would not think about looking for his niece directly at the news that she was no longer in the city or valley itself. The red haired son of Maedhros looked away for a moment, touching the V-shaped scar on his left cheek as a silent reminder to himself that his three younger half-siblings was best off to never know about his horrible past as the Warg Rider.

"Speaking about lord Rog...Rûsa, are you aware of a new theory about why you looks different from your siblings?"

That caught the brothers' attention, though for different reasons.

 _If it is the same one that claims that I am not Atar's son because I am a albino while he is dark-skinned, I do not want to hear it,_ Yuë requested with some disapproval though the use of Ósanwë.

" _ **Nonsense,**_ all that stupid gossip because people are too slow-witted or ignorant of how it was to fight Morgoth, to try and imagine that our family were not bloodthirsty monsters from the beginning! If you look past the skin colour and actually look close, it is clear that Yuë have inherited the green eyes and face of his sire, I am merely looking different because ammë offered to be the new mother of someone who was about to be reborn and the stay in Mandos did not ease out the look I had in my first life!" Rûsa snapped over his shoulder in a surprisingly aggressive tone. Thankfully neither Dior or Nimloth was offended, it was a similar reaction to how they could respond about the legendary Quest for the Silmaril nowadays if someone was foolish enough to mention it, with how Luthien and Beren actually had caused a lot of trouble for their only child and the other Elven realms in the long run.

"Alright, enough of that. We need to increase the pace a little if we can ride as far as possible today," Maeglin commented, taking the lead as she set off in gallop on her mare, the other four following her.

After seven days, they were finally there. The Dwarves had made a entrance to what today might call their domain in Valinor, near the Mansions of Aulë. As a tribute to the original they once had done in ancient times of peace, so had Celebrimbor and Narvi made a copy of the Doors of Durin, with the same password and all, now guarded by Dwarven soldiers to ensure that no unwelcome visitors were trying to sneak past. There had been some cases of Elves trying to cause trouble, sadly, as such, all Elven visitors had to register their names and reason for entering in a large look to keep a eye on them.

"Oh ho! _Maedhros the Orc-Scourge_ 's sons with company, it have been a while since you two lads were seen here! Still no wee one for you and your painter to husband, lady Maeglin?" one of the Dwarven guards commented at seeing who they were.

"Not everyone wants children directly after the marriage," she responded in good humour, while Rûsa pretended to not have heard the question at all. Of course there was some surprise over that Thingol's grandson and his wife was travelling with the sons of Maedhros, but when Maeglin helped Dior, acting as a interpreter, to explain in Khuzdul why he and Nimloth had came along, the Dwarven guards laughed.

"Sounds like you will have a nice payback if his gifted clothing will end up being remade into clothes for the royal families and nobles."

After writing their names and reason for the stay in the register book, they were allowed to enter the Dwarven realm inside Valinor.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Author note: I imagine that since Maedhros, after recovering from Angband, grew to become a great horror for orcs to face in battle, she is known as the Orc-Scourge among the Dwarves


End file.
